Wordplay
by CanaanAlshea
Summary: A series of drabbles based on words.
1. Chapter 1

#1: Respledent-attractive through being richly colorful or sumptuous

Hiei's eyes, he decided, were among the most beautiful things he'd seen in his lifetimes. Their rich color, like finely aged wine, tended to reveal more about him than any expression. When one knew him as well as Kurama did, you could see them twinkling with amusement when he tossed insults across the room, the way they softened when he stood near Yukina. Those eyes that flared with anger and passion during a battle. Resplendent eyes that Kurama lost himself in so often these days.


	2. Chapter 2

#2: Sillage-The scent that lingers in the air, the trail left in water, the impression made after something has been there.

It had been hard for Kurama to return to that house, so many (so few...) years later. Creeping through the window, a white shadow in the darkness. All the neighbors asleep, Shiori resting comfortably in the metal drawer of a nearby morgue...

Carefully, silently, he'd shut the drapes and blinds before delicately placing his lampweeds along the baseboards, alerting no one to his presence in that quiet, haunted place. With practiced care and grace he slid across the room, onto her chair, long cold, with the afghan still hanging over the back it. It smelled of lavender water, green tea; the faint perfume of his mother. Rocking the chair slowly, he touched the little table, carefully traced the spine of her book with his claws. Letters written in gold; a bookmark he had braided for her as a child, marking pages he would never finish.

Leaning his head back, he let his white hair smooth along his shoulder, little strands clinging to the fabric of the blanket. The silence was making his stomach hurt...but if he strained his ears, he could swear that, in the hum of the city below, he heard his mother singing that quiet song he never knew the name of.


	3. Chapter 3

#3: Mellifluous-Pleasingly smooth and musical to hear-Kurama/Hiei

Truthfully, Kurama was already awake. And it was more likely that Hiei knew that. But neither of them moved from their places beneath the quilt, Hiei with his head propped up on a pillow folded in half, Kurama's head resting so perfectly upon the juncture of his chest and shoulder. Breathe in, breathe out. Exhale, inhale. Barely perceptible, the fox tipped his head, just a little, to hear the pulse and blood rushing in his lover's throat. A steady pattern just below the skin. And softly, without words, in that mellifluous silence, they smiled.


	4. Chapter 4

#4: Jayus (indonesian)-a joke so poorly told one cannot help but laugh

"Hey fox," Hiei cocked his head, chewing the gum he'd found on the desk earlier, staring intently at the wrapper from his perch at the foot of the bed.

"Yes?" Kurama did not look up from his book, but placed his finger on the page to indicate he was listening, leaning comfortably against the headboard.

"'What is red and bad for your teeth?' ..." at this, a red brow raised, and Hiei paused before looking up, "'A brick'. The hell...? A brick?!"

Kurama blinked for a second befote a grin spread across his face. When Hiei looked at him, eyebrow nearly reaching his hairline, the fox tipped his head back and burst out laughing.

"What?" Hiei insisted, "What's funny about that?"

Hiding his eyes behind his palm, Kurama just shook his head.

A/N: I googled bad jokes...


	5. Chapter 5

_#5: Rhapsody-An effusively enthusiastically or ecstatic expression of feeling_

Yoko Kurama made his living by stealing from those more fortunate than he. The grin across his face could not be rivaled by anyone who claimed to be in love, his happiness incomperable to those who owned the wealth. Because he knew the kook on their faces when they found their precious gems missing would be absolutely hilarious, the feeling of the blood racing through his veins sweeter than any song he'd ever heard.


	6. Chapter 6

#6: Nebulous-Vague or Ill Defined-Kurama/Hiei

"Kurama," Hiei sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, "why are you doing this again?"

Te fox shrugged, not making eye contact as he gently caressed the petals of a strange new plant, "Because, I want to make sure it's okay before I bring it into the garden. After all, if the other roots deem it a threat, it will die instantly."

Crimson eyes wandered over to the vibrant garden his lover held, cocking his head, "Right. Like you don't have have enough deadly flowers?"

"Not really, no. And besides," a slight smile, barely noticable, "this one is special..."

Giei just shook his head, taking the tiny sprout and setting it in the soil-filled pot, "You spend too much time with these things."

"They need me."

"That doesn't make much sense."

"Sure it does," the kitsune gave a small shrug, wiping his palms on his jeans, "If you only know what to look for..."


	7. Chapter 7

#7: Fernweh (German)-A crave for travel; being homesick for a place you have never been.

"So, what made you change your mind?"

Kurama looked over to his partner, cocking his head, "What do you mean?"

Hiei nodded toward the portal, moments away from being stable enough for them to transfer to Demon World, "I've been asking you for some time now if you wanted to...you always said no. Some work or school, simply not wanting to...so, what changed?"

The fox sighed, shrugged noncommitally, "As I'm famous for, I've grown bored. I want to leave for a while, just a while. I want to see how much it's changed...how much I have changed."

Hiei smiled softly, holding his hand out as the light changed to gold, flashing ominously against the forest and sending shadows around them, "Well then. Let's get going."

Taking the calloused, bandaged hand of his friend, he returned the smile with bright eyes.

Yes. It was time for a change from the ordinary. It was time to smell blood again.


	8. Chapter 8

#8: Zephyr-A light breeze-Kurama/Hiei-Kurama POV

"What are you doing here...again?"

Sighing, I shrugged my shoulders, leaning my head against the trunk of the old willow. I looked upon the shadowed figure on the branches above me, smiling softly, "I don't know, really. Although I could ask you the same question. I could have sworn you'd promised never to come back to this human place..."

He let out a small 'hn', hopped down to sit next to me, closing brilliant ruby eyes. I breathed slowly, looking at his pale features, "You like this tree, don't you, love?"

"Hn. Nothing but a plant to me."

"I see," I manipulated the plant to drop a blossom into my hand, blooming it ripely with my own ki, "That is why you repeatedly come to the same one?"

A soft breeze blew through the meadow then, whispering through the grass and lifting the nightshade bangs of my lover.

"...It suits me," he said at last, folding his fingers with mine, "As it suits you." The meadow sang of old times, of time before a human touch. I chuckled, setting the tiny flower in his palm, watching his fingers caress delicate petals.


	9. Chapter 9

#9: Vespertine-Active in the evening

Kurama had taken on nocturnal habits. His little home at the far edge of the city, a forest within walking distance, had allowed him great freedoms he'd never before possessed during his time in the human world. When the moon was waxing, bright and pale, he lounged in the trees, long white hair trailing down his back, tail swishing calmly as he sang softly in a language long forgotten. Nearly isolated now, he found solace in the sounds of the trees whistling, the feeling of power crackling just beneath the surface of his skin. The nights were only for him.


	10. Chapter 10

#10: Mamihlapinatapei (Yagan)-The wordless yet meaningful look shared by two people who both desire to initiate something but are reluctant to start.

Yusuke/Kurama

"Hey Kurama, you okay?" I looked over at the young detective whose eyes were so deeply fixated on me. Cocking my head, I went back to my garden, trimming the somewhat older buds from their stems, dropping them into a basket to deliver to my mother.

"Yusuke," I inspected the leaking stems, satisfied with the color, "I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"Well...your mom asked me to check up on you and," he shrugged, trying to be casual, holding a flower to his nose, "Well...whenever she does that, I worry."

I smiled softly, couldn't help but chuckle at the absurdity of her paranoia, "Thank you. I will be sure to tell her, when she calls in an hour, that I am eating and have been quite well. Because I know she asked you because I forgot to call her this weekend."

I had been sleeping off poison this weekend. A spider demon had sunk its fangs into me and, as per usual, my mother and lover had spent two days checking in on me. Sometimes, I wondered if telling her of my nature was a mistake, especially when she inspected my neck for wounds...

"Kurama," my lover sighed, rubbing the back of his neck, "We're just...you know..." His eyes dropped to my exposed arms, at the scars my human body could not heal. Knowing what lay beneath the layers.

I sighed, met his gaze; silently, I told him not to ask, not to tell.

He wanted to ask me when I would start telling her the truth about how dangerous my work actually was. I would never admit such a thing for fear of giving her panic attacks every time I left the house. Together, we met in the middle with a pleasent lie that all demons we dealt with were low level and mostly harmless. If we both kept our promises, my mother needn't worry herself sick over it.

And everyone would be happy.


End file.
